2. Look at the patient arrival rates and compare them to the available MD and NP capacity. An hour-by-hour or day-by-day analysis will show some interesting patterns. Based on what you have learned about waiting lines and utilization, comment on the current assignment fitness between supply and demand?
| | | |Patients waiting |Patients waiting | | | | | | | |67% |33% |MD |NP |Availability | |Patients per hour treated | | | |Arrival |MD |NP |Beg of HR |Serviced |End of HR |Beg of HR |Serviced |End of HR |MD |NP |MD |NP | |8am …show more content…
A desired outcome of the new triage system is to off-load work from MDs onto NPs. How cost-effective is this strategy, considering the different service rates of MDs and NPs? (Use salary data given in case. Make necessary assumptions.)
This strategy is cost effective given the hourly rates of NPs compared to those of MDs. However, the current process does not effectively leverage that as they are not off-loading enough patients to NPs given the wait times for MDs. Essentially, they need to find a way to move more patients to the NP queue. One way to do this would be by expanding upon the 13 categories currently deemed treatable by an NP. Also, they need to make sure the triage nurses are assigning patients to NPs (if eligible) vs. NP or MD in order to free up MD’s queue.
4. Assuming 5 MDs on duty at an average (each with a service rate of 3.1 patients per hour) and that all patients (143 per day) see an MD, calculate the effect of a 4% increase in the arrival rate on the expected wait time in queue: Wq (use Queuing Formulas, assume uniform arrival across 10 working hours per day, note that it’s a multiple server system drawing from a single line – M/M/S). Comment on this …show more content…
Also, college students may not be as concerned about the quality and personal care received by a specific MD (who is familiar with their medical history) as executives might be. That said, we would operate more cost effectively by keeping our MD levels to a minimum and routing all eligible visits through NPs. In addition, we would not allow walk-in requests to see a specific MD as college audience would not find as much value in this as an executive might. Lastly, if you are a college student, you will likely use the most convenient walk-in clinic to you – the one right on the campus (even if they have longer wait times) while executives have many more options. So, there will be many more competing clinics that executives could go to in order to wait less and get better and personal care from an MD of their